I don’t practice the O-lifts often enough in general, but I worked on them every two weeks recently. With some coaching cues from Jules on the first and second pull, which I’d never heard before, I was able to snatch 93 pretty easily one Monday night this month. So last Monday, the 19th, also in Jules’s class, I decided I should be able to add 7 pounds to that. It took me two or three tries, but I did snatch 100 lbs once with no press-out or other craziness. Failed on 101 though.

After feeling back pain on 9/7 with the kettlebell swings, which had followed 190-lb back squats, I went to see Dave for a training session to see if he could spot the problem. He and Scott looked at me squatting and found that indeed I’m not fully stabilizing my mid-back, and that I’m not engaging my hip flexors to pull down. Instead I’m using my stronger legs (than my back) to fight gravity and then finish the lift. I need to practice perfectly stabilized, lighter back squats and have somebody watch me. But will I? I’m almost always working out alone.

Monday, July 25 in Jules’s class, we went for heavy singles. I started out doing 3’s but went pretty quickly down to singles. Wasn’t sure if my existing PR was 130 or 135, so I made sure to shoot for 137, which I got, then finished with 138.

Today, Friday: Attempted today’s WOD and DNF! Could not sleep since the wee hours and am stressed out. I kept starting to feel clammy and couldn’t quite tell if it was just hot, which it was, or if I was about to get lightheaded. I did maybe three and a half rounds and quit after 12 minutes. I haven’t quit a workout in a long time! It was supposed to be:
12 DL
9 hang power cleans
6 push-jerks
5 rounds, 105 lbs (I was using 88, then went down to 83)

Deadlift, testing 5-rep max:
5 x 145
5 x 165
3 x 185
3 x 200
5 x 215
5 x 220 (for a calc. 1-rep max of 248)
This is close to my old 1-rep max from two years or so ago, of 253. It felt very solid today and it was great having L. there as a workout partner – great for morale, and fun.

Then we did a 10-minute ladder: 24-inch box jumps and 12-kg kettlebell pushpresses (with two KBs). Do 1 of each, 2 of each, etc. I got up to 11 rounds plus about nine box jumps.

The work sets of 3 and 1 should have been at 85 and 95 percent or 194 and 216. But since 216 would have been more than I deadlifted the other day, I chickened out and backed those last two sets off about 10 lbs. But when I did the 205 single, I felt I could have lifted 215. I do think my deadlift is a bit weak right now; I started being really cautious after I had low-back pain on the left side with 185-lb stiff-leg deadlifts in early February.